Before he became Patti Smith’s lead guitarist, Lenny Kaye compiled Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era. Released in 1972, the two-LP set covered American garage rock and psychedelia from the years 1965 to 1968 and was a major influence on punk rock. Rhino Records reissued an expanded version of the set in 1998, with 118 tracks in total. I’m profiling and rating each of these 118 tracks, working backwards.
Track 25: Open My Eyes by Nazz
Release Date: 1968
From: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Rating: 10/10
OPEN MY EYES – Nazz [2:48]
(Todd Rundgren)
Personnel/ROBERT “STEWKEY” ANTONI: vocals, organ * TODD RUNDGREN: guitar, vocals * CARSON VanOSTEN: bass, vocals * THOM MOONEY: drums
Arranged by NAZZ
Produced by NAZZ & MICHAEL FRIEDMAN
Recorded in New York, NY
SGC single #45-001 (8/68); Pop #112
With all due respect to John Fogerty, Glen Campbell, and Roky Erickson, there’s a strong argument that Todd Rundgren is the most talented musician on the entire Nuggets boxset. He was barely out of his teens when ‘Open My Eyes’ was released. He wrote the song, and his fuzzy guitar leads and harmonies are strong. The b-side of ‘Open My Eyes’ was ‘Hello, It’s Me’ – a reworked solo version would later become a hit. It’s a heck of a strong debut single from someone who was barely 20.
The Nazz was one of several bands that Rundgren passed through before going solo. He left Woody’s Truck Stop, then the most popular band in Philadelphia, because he was bored of playing blues. A Beatles fan, he started Nazz in an attempt to emulate his heroes.
The opening chords are similar to The Who’s ‘I Can’t Explain’. But from there, ‘Open My Eyes’ goes in unexpected directions. The psychedelic touches drop out for a jazzy middle eight, before an accomplished Rundgren solo. It captures the psychedelic sound of the mid-1960s Beatles. To my ears, it’s also reminiscent of Buffalo Springfield’s ‘Mr Soul’.
The Nazz never really reached their potential, only making two albums – a third record, of outtakes, appeared in 1971. The group struggled living in a shared house. Vocalist and keyboardist Robert Antoni earned the name Stewkey because he was always stewed. Rundgren also explained that:
“It was brief and very intense. I’ve made peace with it, but a lot of potential was wasted. I don’t really blame any single person for that. I had a hard time focusing on the band, I continued to develop myself as a songwriter and a performer. Eventually everyone would feel like a backup band – I was writing the songs, producing the records. As time went on my presence was bound to distort the thing.
Todd Rundgren, 2002
Bassist Carson Van Osten went onto a noteworthy career as a Disney cartoonist and writer. Rundgren has gone on to a very accomplished career, but ‘Open My Eyes’ stands proudly among his best songs.
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I agree with your 10/10 rating. The song is a standout on this collection. Todd Rundgren is pretty talented and has written some great songs including this one. It’s true the very beginning of “Open My Eyes” is reminiscent of The Who’s “Can’t Explain”, another song I happen to love, but it’s only a brief reference that doesn’t derail “Open My Eyes”.
Yup, starts like I Can’t Explain, but it goes a lot of different directions in a short space of time.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard this one before but…it’s one of the best songs on Nuggets to me. This is fantastic…I did think Can’t Explain when I heard the opening riff but that quickly changes. It’s more fully realized than some of the other songs. He doesn’t leave much room in the song…which in this case is a good thing. Excellent
It’s pretty packed with ideas, right. Soon afterwards, Rundgren got obsessed with Laura Nyro and went singer songwriter, but wish he’d rocked a bit more in his early prime too.
Most of the time I like people letting songs breathe…but in this case no…he did all the right things.
He’s a bit of an over-stuffer a lot of the time. But in a good way.
Great choice. An early Todd classic. I’m seeing him on Thursday
Awesome – enjoy!
Wait a minute. Where are Roky Erickson and Glen Campbell on the album?? I’m surprised I don’t know this. I listened to Roky Erickson Night of the Vampire the other day, and I Walked with a Zombie except the different version by a Mexican band Los Esquizitos. They’re both awesome though. A lot of people love this Nazz song and I probably give it like only a 9 out of 10 cuz it’s not quite super-top tier Nuggets but just below. And I didn’t know Hello it’s Me is on the flip side. That is so weird.
There’s a 13th Floor Elevators track on disc one. And there’s a track by Sagittarius, which is basically Campbell and Gary Usher.
Oh. I thought it was some hippie band that Roky Erickson was in. I didn’t know it was 13th floor elevators, or else I just forgot. Idk.
I’ve always sped-read his name as Rory, so I had to go back and fix that…
A great tune that could still be played by any band today and not sound dated. (Maybe lose the psychedelic stuff). I grew up in Philly and my sister clued me in to the Nazz.
It’s pretty amazing coming from someone just of their teens. I assumed you still lived in Philly?
Yeah, but none of us had the slightest idea who was in the band. Rundgren got famous later.
It may be just me but I’m getting a weird ‘403 access forbidden’ error in going to your blog. Your blog is on my blog roll so you can see the behavior there.
Thanks for letting me know – that’s weird. I tried testing from a few different locations (using Pingdom) and couldn’t get the error. Do you mind letting me know if it’s still happening tomorrow?
Seems ok now. I must have hit some weird server glitch as t just the right moment.
I can’t believe you’re on Disc 1 already. Now that I look at the track list I wonder if I would have liked the album as much if the original one was the first one I heard. Cuz the first disc isn’t even the best. It’s only got five 10/10s really and some of the other discs have more. I wish they would let me re-do it and I would make it awesome and cut it down to about half the size so only the greatest tracks were left.
I suspect the first is my favourite, but I guess we’ll find out at the end. I think a two disc set, with one song per artist, would be better. But there haven’t been many weak tracks – it’s just a lot.